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About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in add... (More)

About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in addition to writing editorials for more than 15 years. I have served as a director of many non-profits in the Valley and the broader Bay Area and currently serve as chair of Teen Esteem and on the advisory board of Shepherd?s Gate. I also served as founding chair of Heart for Africa and have travelled to Africa seven times to serve on mission trips. My wife, Betty Gail, has taught at Amador Valley High (from where we both graduated) since 1981. She and I both graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, as did both of my parents and my three siblings. Given that Cal tradition, our daughter went south to the University of Southern California and graduated with a degree in international relations. Since graduation, she has taken three mission trips and will be serving in the Philippines for nine months starting in September. (Hide)

Swalwell's inappropriate remark in Congress

Uploaded: Sep 26, 2013

Congressman Eric Swalwell took a bad page out of his predecessor's book when he chastised Republicans during the debate last week on defunding Obamacare as part of a continuing resolution to fund the federal government when the new fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
He said, "I invite my colleagues on the other side to wake up from this radical, ideological wet dream and come back to reality."
Swalwell defeated 20-term incumbent Pete Stark last November. Stark was known for shooting his mouth off and had a career full of comments that were way too quotable for the wrong reasons. Swalwell, who was a prosecutor in Alameda County before winning the seat in Congress, should know much better.
The Washington Post covered the story and described Swalwell's language as an R-rated word.
Perhaps what is more telling is how Swalwell, who has been endorsed by Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi, is toeing the liberal Democrat line. More realistic members of both parties have seen the disaster that Obamacare is becoming and realize that it is clearly not ready to go.
What's more is that the president unilaterally has delayed implementationbreaking the law he signedfor a year for big business and then announced an exemption for members of Congress and their staffsanother violation of the law that specifies members participate in the exchanges. The simple logicif it's good enough (or bad enough as the case may be) for their constituents, it is good enough for them to be covered.
Some employers now are reducing hours for employees to part-time status, hiring temps or simply not hiring as they wait to see what shakes out.
Ironically, it will be small businesses and self-employed people who will have to deal with the individual mandate in a couple of weeksthe president has put off the law for others.
Swalwell, who has been running for re-election since he won the seat about a year ago, already has kicked off his formal re-election campaign with former CIA chief and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta delivering the keynote address.
The rhetoric on both sides of the aisle on Obamacare and funding the government is intense. Swalwell wrote in a fundraising email that "Washington is in crisis. Our nation is threatened by lawmakers who have insisted that unless they get 100 percent of what they want, they will shutdown the government."
Actually, shutting down the government may do some good. How much have you heard lately about how damaging the sequester has been? What's clear is Democrat leaders have no intention or stomach for rolling back the huge increases in discretionary spending established in the first two years of the Obama Administration. They are okay with borrowing 40 cents of every dollar spent and neither party has done anything to address the demographic train wreck coming with Social Security and Medicare.

Posted by Daveg,
a resident of Birdland,
on Sep 26, 2013 at 8:23 amDaveg is a registered user.

Although I'm not a fan of Obamacare,I think some of your statements are incorrect. For example:
Claim: Congress is exempt from the law.

FactCheck.org says: False.

Several versions of this claim have been circulating since before the Affordable Care Act was passed. But no matter how many different ways the critics spin it, Congress isn't exempt from the law. In fact, members and their staffs face additional requirements that other Americans don't. Beginning in 2014, they can no longer get insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, as they and other federal employees have done. Instead, they are required to get insurance through the insurance exchanges.

Posted by liberalism is a disease,
a resident of Birdland,
on Sep 26, 2013 at 2:09 pmliberalism is a disease is a registered user.

From the National Review on 9/16 ( Web Link):
"Senator David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, has demanded a floor vote on his bill to end an exemption that members of Congress and their staffs are slated to get that will make them the only participants in the new Obamacare exchanges to receive generous subsidies from their employer to pay for their health insurance."
"Under behind-the-scenes pressure from members of Congress in both parties, President Obama used the quiet of the August recess to personally order the Office of Personnel Management, which supervises federal employment issues, to interpret the law so as to retain the generous congressional benefits."

Posted by Daveg,
a resident of Birdland,
on Sep 26, 2013 at 6:35 pmDaveg is a registered user.

Sure hope somebody can straighten this out. This the latest from Fact Check:
REPEATED CLAIMS

We also heard some claims that we have debunked before, including these:
?Cruz repeated the false claim that members of Congress are exempt from the health care law. As we have written numerous times, the law requires congressional members and their staffs to get insurance through the newly created exchanges, so they are not exempt. In fact, the law prevents them from getting insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, like other federal employees. However, the federal government, will continue to make contributions toward the premiums of lawmakers and their staffs ? just as most large employers do for their employees.

Posted by Jack,
a resident of Downtown,
on Sep 26, 2013 at 9:42 pmJack is a registered user.

I remember learning the definition of "wet dream" from my sex education class taught to me in Pleasanton during the 70's. I just asked my sixth grader if he was taught the term "wet dream" in his "human growth and development" course last year, he smirked and said, "Yes. Why?"
"Wet dream" is not an R rated term. I'll speak for myself, and I think it's funny, and I think it's great that our young, new congressman from the Tri-Valley is getting some national attention. And by the way, most of Washington needs to wake up from their "radical, ideological wet dreams and come back to reality.?
Well said Eric...

Posted by liberalism is a disease,
a resident of Birdland,
on Sep 27, 2013 at 8:44 amliberalism is a disease is a registered user.

Anything goes, eh, Jack? So much for decorum, ethics and professionalism. But ,then Swallow and folks of his ilk are products of the same public school environment that your son is subjected to. I suppose you think his comments are appropriate since they tend to related to the lowest common denominator and tend to try to bring us all down to that level...or is that assumption 'premature e......."?
Here's to hoping for higher standards from our public officials and that the voting public doesn't get dragged down to the gutter they currently prefer to occupy.

Posted by Jack,
a resident of Downtown,
on Sep 27, 2013 at 2:09 pmJack is a registered user.

You want to get upset over something? Get upset over this whole Syria debacle! Or the national debt, or all these wars we keep jumping into, or the fact that we still can't get people good, secure jobs. Or get upset that some poor guy lies in a coma because he got beat up in front of his house in Pleasanton...
But your Congressman's use of the phrase "wet dream?"
Wet Dream, wet dream, wet dream, wet dream!!!
It's a phrase taught to fifth graders!
Swalwell made his point!
And as for his "decorum, ethics, and professionalism," I will judge him more on the stance he took on Syria, and the stance he took on TSA wanting to allow knives on airplanes a helluva lot more than his use of "Wet Dream!"